A blog by Grant Montgomery, co-founder of Family Care, a 501c3 that provides emergency services and sustained development for families on 5 continents. This site highlights the plight of 300,000 North Koreans who have fled their country due to the brutal oppression of a Stalinist North Korean regime, as well as those still living in North Korea.

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Satellite monitoring North Korean political prisons

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and Longmont, Colorado commercial imagery intelligence company AllSource Analysis (ASA) announced a strategic partnership to use satellite imaging and analysis to monitor and report on North Korea’s notorious political prison system.

“Up to 120,000 citizens are being held without due process in horrific, inhumane conditions for political reasons, and an estimated half-million people have died in these camps,” HRNK Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu said from the group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. “The collaboration with ASA will allow us to monitor, review and report on North Korea’s vast system of unlawful imprisonment. Our collaboration will employ technology used for the first time to address such an enormous human tragedy.”

The new collaboration will focus on data collection using time-lapse tracking of current and historical images, combined with on-the-ground surveillance and testimonials from former prisoners, guards and other human sources to track developments and bring as much transparency as possible to the situation.

Having this application of satellite imagery, collection and analysis represents a game-changing approach to international humanitarian efforts in North Korea and other hot spots around the world.

Most satellite imaging analysis of North Korea has focused on weapons and military infrastructure,” said AllSource Chief Analytics Officer Joe Bermudez, an internationally recognized expert on North Korea. “We’re honored to provide the technology to take humanitarian monitoring and analysis to a new level.”